May 22, 2015 -- VenezuelAnalysis, posted at Links international Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission -- Leftists in Venezuela put forward a number
of different explanations for the pressing economic difficulties and
growing discontent that has beset Venezuela and increases the possibility of
an opposition takeover of the National Assembly in this year’s
elections.

May 19, 2015 -- JohnRiddell.Wordpress.com, submitted to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal by the author -- In current discussions of twenty-first century socialism, the work of
Michael Lebowitz has a unique merit: it is rooted in the experience of
Cuba and Venezuela, where efforts in recent decades to move toward
socialism have been the most vigorous. Quotations from Che Guevara and
Hugo Chávez set the tone.

May 13, 2015 – versions of this article were published in Red Pepper (April-May issue) and Alborada.net, posted
at Links International Journal of
Socialist Renewal with permission of the author -- It’s a point of honour for Venezuela’s government that
despite the sharp plunge in oil prices and acute shortages of goods, President
Nicolás Maduro has ruled out austerity measures. In a recent TV interview
conducted by former vice-president José Vicente Rangel, Central Bank president
Nelson Merentes explained why, when he asked: “Do you remember what happened on
February 27, 1989?”

On that date massive nationwide disturbances broke out
after the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez announced sharp price hikes and
negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, setting the stage for the
1992 military uprising led by Hugo Chávez. The memory of February 27 and the
decision of the formerly left-leaning Pérez to come to terms with powerful
economic groups as a way out of pressing economic difficulties undoubtedly
weigh on Maduro’s response to the current situation.

In
the following interview she outlines some of the lessons she has
derived from her experience with the Popular Unity government of Chile’s
Salvador Allende (1970-73) that are applicable to current attempts in
Latin America to build “an alternative society to capitalism that is
essentially democratic”.

April 17, 2015 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Policies that
expand “extractivism” in progressive Latin American countries bring up a host
of contradictions: How do the short-term benefits of financial gain from extraction
compare to its long-term destructiveness? What options are available for reducing
poverty without increasing mining, logging and GMO monocultures? Could the
climate change effects of extraction actually hurt the world’s poor more than
helping them? How can struggles against extractivism chart a path to economies
based on human need rather corporate profits?

[The following letter was written by Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and was originally published on March 17.]

By Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela

We are the people of Simon Bolívar, our people believe in peace and respect for all nations.

Freedom and independence

More than two centuries ago, our fathers founded a Republic on the basis that all persons are free and equal under the law.

Our nation made the greatest sacrifices to guarantee South American
people their right to choose their rulers and to enforce their own laws
today. The historical legacy of our father, Simón Bolívar, is always
remembered. Bolívar was a man who gave his life so we would inherit a
nation of justice and equality.

April 9, 2015 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- The following letter, signed by 30 academics, municipal councillors, trade union officials, journalists, solidarity organisation convenors and political party leaders from around Australia, was initiated by the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign in Melbourne. It will be handed over the US consulates in Melbourne and Sydney on April 10. If you would like to add your name please email Denis Rogatyuk at denis_rogatyuk@mail.ru.

* * *

President Barack Obama
White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr President,

We, the undersigned individuals and organisations, reject your March 9, 2015, declaration deeming Venezuela as an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States”.

We also oppose the sanctions your administration has placed on a number of Venezuelan state officials and call for the immediate repeal of your Executive Order on Venezuela.

The reality is that Venezuela today is not at war with any nation, nor does it have military bases outside its borders. In fact, Venezuela is helping to mediate an end to the war in Colombia and has constantly championed peace in the region.

March 7, 2015 -- TeleSUR English, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Venezuela has proposed trade and economic agreements that would make Athens one of Caracas' main trading partners.
Venezuela and Greece solidified their bilateral partnership this week, when Venezuelan officials visited the Mediterranean country to meet the new SYRIZA government.

Venezuela's minister of foreign relations Delcy Rodriguez met with the new Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras on March 6, who said that solidifying the relationship between the two countries would mutually benefit the Greek and Venezuelan people.

The problem is currently being faced in Greece with
SYRIZA, and will have to be faced in Spain with Podemos (if that party
wins the general elections in late 2015), as it was faced in the past,
in Venezuela with the election of Hugo Chávez as president in December
1998, in Bolivia with Evo Morales in 2005, in Ecuador with Rafael Correa
in December 2006, or several decades earlier with Salvador Allende in
Chile in 1970 |1|.

Today
we celebrate a decade of achievement of the Bolivarian Alliance for the
Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA). For 10 years ALBA has stood on the
world stage as a defender of peace, solidarity and popular sovereignty.

Before
ALBA, Cuba stood alone for many years against the U.S.-led empire. But
through ALBA, an alliance of countries, with wide influence and many
friends among governments and peoples, now challenges imperialism on a
range of issues. While representing only a few small and poor countries,
ALBA exercises great moral authority and carries weight in world
affairs. ALBA is the most effective international alliance based on
solidarity in modern history.

February 19,
2015 – Links International Journal of
Socialist Renewal -- The election of the radical left-wing SYRIZA party in
Greece and a possible victory of the similarly radical party Podemos in Spain
has raised the hopes of millions of people across Europe and the globe that we
can put an end to austerity-type policies, put in place policies that will
protect working people from the capitalist crisis and advance society to a new era of social justice
governments.

The failed coup attempt was crafted around a plan that involved creating an economic assault on the country, creating an international debate around a supposed humanitarian crisis, a political coup involving officials who would turn on the government, and finally a military coup that would lead to the installation of the transitional program. The coup plotters even planned to bomb Miraflores [presidential] Palace and the TeleSUR offices in Caracas, as well as conducting assassinations of both members of the opposition and the government, including President Maduro, during the ensuing chaos once the coup unfolded.

Those involved were being paid in US dollars, and
one of the suspects had been granted a visa to enter the United States
should the plot fail, Maduro said.

Venezuela’s president stated that the coup plotters
already had a “transitional” government and program lined up once the
plan, which included bombings on the Miraflores [presidential] Palace and the teleSUR
offices in Caracas, as well as assassinations of members of the
opposition, Maduro and others, was carried out.

Maduro explained that a video of masked military
officials speaking out against the government had been recorded, which
was set to be released after the planned assassination was carried out.

A Venezuelan government statement said: “Venezuela warmly
congratulates the Syriza coalition party and Alexis Tsipras for their
historic victory, wishing them success and complete solidarity and
support.”

Venezuela's foreign minister Elias Jaua tweeted: “The Greek
people, after a long and historic battle against neoliberalism, has
crowned itself a wonderful victory. Syriza is fresh air for Europe!”

With imperialism increasing its efforts to
undermine the revolution and exacerbate internal weaknesses, and with
the Venezuelan people still reeling from the blow of the premature death
of former president Hugo Chavez, international solidarity is needed
like never before to maintain the revolutionary advances made by and for
the Venezuelan people.

The
2014 brigade, which was made up of activists of Australian, New Zealand
and Malaysian nationalities, spent two weeks in Venezuela, during which
time it fulfilled all three of its objectives. These were:

December 24, 2014 – Links
International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Nearly two years after the
death of Hugo Chávez, the key question that many on the left are debating, in
Venezuela and elsewhere, is whether his successors have been true to his
legacy, or whether the “revolutionary process” initiated more than a decade ago
has now stalled or even been thrown into reverse.

The recent emergence
of a number of pressing problems has convinced some Chavistas that the
revolution has either been betrayed or, at best, that President Nicolás Maduro is
severely lacking in Chávez’s political acumen.

[Paper
presented at the International Scientific Academic Meeting on Methodology and
Experiences in Socio-environmental Participatory processes, Cuenca University,
November 13-15, 2014.*]

December 19, 2014 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- These words are aimed at those who want to build a humanist and solidarity-based
society. A society based on the complete participation of all people. A society
focused on a model of sustainable development that satisfies people's genuine
needs in a just manner, and not the artificial wants created by capitalism in
its irrational drive to obtain more profits. A society that does all this while
ensuring that humanity’s future in not put at risk. A society where the
organized people are the ones who decide what and how to produce. A society we
have referred to as Twenty-First Century Socialism, Good Living or Life in
Plenitude.

On October 26 Brazilians re-elected Dilma Rousseff as president, ushering in a fourth consecutive Workers’ Party administration.

By Federic Fuentes

December 7, 2014 -- first published in TeleSUR English, submitted to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal by the author -- Since the start of the year, numerous newspapers have dedicated article after article to predictions of a looming demise of the so-called “Pink Tide”. The term is used to refer to the wave of left-of-centre governments elected to power in Latin America during recent years.

A number of these governments were up for re-election this year, and pollsters and commentators alike argued that for many, their time in government was up.

Instead, on October 26 Brazilians re-elected Dilma Rousseff as president, ushering in a fourth consecutive Workers’ Party administration. That same day, voters in neighboring Uruguay handed the incumbent Broad Front (FA) a majority in both houses of parliament, and FA candidate Tabare Vasquez went into the second round of the presidential elections as hot favorite after winning 49.5% of the vote in the first round (compared with 32% for his nearest rival).